This Week’s Big Issue
Should IU have a school of international affairs?
This is one of the questions the New Academic Directions Committee (http://www.indiana.edu/~newacad/academic/index.shtml) will be working on in the coming weeks as it develops recommendations for the President and the IU Board of Trustees.
Some argue that IU’s area study programs can be re-organized into a school of international affairs. What this argument misses is that the center of gravity in many IUB area study programs resides in the humanities. While literature, music, and languages, among other areas of the humanities are central to the study of international affairs, they tend to play a supporting role in international affairs schools in other leading universities where the social sciences (particularly international relations, international development and diplomacy) tend to take center stage.
SPEA’s focus on international affairs has waxed and waned over the years. Consistent with SPEA2015, we have made an effort to strengthen our international profile, developing overseas study courses, hiring faculty with international research agendas, and developing partnerships that will internationalize our student body. At some institutions, schools of public affairs are joined with schools of international affairs (e.g., Columbia University); however, the more typical arrangement is for these to be separate academic units.
As this discussion unfolds, we will need to consider whether SPEA should be the home for a new unit dedicated to international affairs, perhaps renaming the school to include this sphere of intellectual and educational activity.
Regardless of how IU decides to organize its international affairs education programs, an effort that strengthens international affairs on the IUB campus should be seen as a positive development for SPEA. An academic unit dedicated to international affairs would make it easier to recruit students and faculty with these interests to IUB SPEA with these interests. Moreover, an international affairs unit on the IUB campus could provide an important partner in our educational programs, especially for those students who plan to pursue global careers in public policy/administration.
What’s Happening in SPEA Bloomington?
The IU Debate Team, under Brian DeLong’s leadership, is off to a fast start. The Team has a new web-page (http://www.iub.edu/~iudebate/index.shtml). Make sure to look at some of the historical documents posted on the page that Brian uncovered to highlight the long and distinguished history of intercollegiate debate on the IUB campus. Major tournaments have been scheduled at the University of Kentucky, Georgia University, and the University of North Texas. Indiana will also host its first college tournament in nearly two decades in mid-February.
SPEA’s Big Number
This week’s big number for SPEA is the record setting size of the school (measured by undergraduate market share) on the Bloomington Campus: SPEA is the 4th largest school (overtaking Education and Music).
The College of Arts and Sciences is the largest school (56.5%), followed by the Kelley School of Business (15.5%), the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (8.2%), SPEA (4.9%), Jacobs School of Music (4.4%), the School of Education (4.2%), the School of Informatics and Computing (2.0%), the School of Journalism (1.6%), Medical Sciences (0.9%), School of Optometry (0.09%), the School of Library and Information Systems (0.008%).
Shout-Out to SPEA Bloomington
Please join me in congratulating Sarah Hamang (BSPA, Nonprofit Management) on receipt of the Harry Bentley Burnett Scholarship. This program provides scholarships to the Hutton Honors College junior men and women in recognition of their outstanding academic achievements, exceptional leadership and contributions to their fields of study, to Indiana University and to the Bloomington community.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Leadership and Shaping Values
This Week’s Big Issue
This week’s big issue is leadership and the role SPEA’s educational programs play in shaping the values of our students. Paul O’Neill (IUB MPA 1966) visited SPEA last week to discuss this topic. He met with students and faculty to learn more about the School’s efforts to promote leadership (and character) development.
A trademark of SPEA’s educational programs is our desire to shape the analytic approach of our students. We do this in a number of ways but primarily through technical courses designed to provide students with practical skills that they can apply to real world problems. Specifically, the values we tend to promote are (1) looking for evidence and rationale for conclusions, (2) avoiding pre-commitment on an issue until appropriate analysis is performed, (3) respecting the roles of stakeholders and public participation in governance, and (4) respecting the legitimacy of alternative conceptions of the public good and openness toward alternative ways of expressing those values in a democratic process.
While we spend considerable time helping students cultivate their analytic skills, we struggle (and frequently disagree) on the role we should play in shaping their hearts.
Many educational organizations approach the issue of leadership and character development as a function of selecting individuals into educational programs that share the organization’s values. This passive approach can be balanced with more deliberate strategies of actively working with students to give them the opportunity to explore the ethical challenges they will likely face in their careers.
Given the unique and unprecedented challenges our country (and the world) faces, I encourage you to think and share approaches we should take to cultivate our students to become responsible leaders.
What’s Happening in SPEA Bloomington?
Last week the SPEA D.C. Alumni Group convened a seminar on “Rebuilding A Better Haiti: Are Recovery Efforts Aiding Development?” at the Ronald Reagan Building. The event was moderated by Mollie Lemon (SPEA alumnus and U.S. EPA) and featured presentations by Jonathan Nash (Director of Environmental and Social Assessment for the Millennium Challenge Corporation), Marie Gladys Guerrier Archange (Senior Environmental Specialist with the Fulbright Program), Gene George (Haiti Coordinator with the U.S. Peace Corps), Daniel Petz (Senior Research Assistant with the Brookings Institution) and Leon Waskin (Haiti Task Team Coordinator with the U.S. Agency for International Development). The event was attended by over 80 participants, and represents an important milestone in our efforts to support and cultivate SPEA alumni groups around the country.
SPEA’s Big Number
This week’s big number for SPEA Bloomington is the total number of full-time faculty: 75 (compared to 53 in academic year 2005-06).
Shout-Out to SPEA Bloomington
Please join me in congratulating everyone in SPEA Bloomington on winning first place in the latest round of the IUB Energy Challenge. http://energychallenge.indiana.edu/academicstandings.html
This week’s big issue is leadership and the role SPEA’s educational programs play in shaping the values of our students. Paul O’Neill (IUB MPA 1966) visited SPEA last week to discuss this topic. He met with students and faculty to learn more about the School’s efforts to promote leadership (and character) development.
A trademark of SPEA’s educational programs is our desire to shape the analytic approach of our students. We do this in a number of ways but primarily through technical courses designed to provide students with practical skills that they can apply to real world problems. Specifically, the values we tend to promote are (1) looking for evidence and rationale for conclusions, (2) avoiding pre-commitment on an issue until appropriate analysis is performed, (3) respecting the roles of stakeholders and public participation in governance, and (4) respecting the legitimacy of alternative conceptions of the public good and openness toward alternative ways of expressing those values in a democratic process.
While we spend considerable time helping students cultivate their analytic skills, we struggle (and frequently disagree) on the role we should play in shaping their hearts.
Many educational organizations approach the issue of leadership and character development as a function of selecting individuals into educational programs that share the organization’s values. This passive approach can be balanced with more deliberate strategies of actively working with students to give them the opportunity to explore the ethical challenges they will likely face in their careers.
Given the unique and unprecedented challenges our country (and the world) faces, I encourage you to think and share approaches we should take to cultivate our students to become responsible leaders.
What’s Happening in SPEA Bloomington?
Last week the SPEA D.C. Alumni Group convened a seminar on “Rebuilding A Better Haiti: Are Recovery Efforts Aiding Development?” at the Ronald Reagan Building. The event was moderated by Mollie Lemon (SPEA alumnus and U.S. EPA) and featured presentations by Jonathan Nash (Director of Environmental and Social Assessment for the Millennium Challenge Corporation), Marie Gladys Guerrier Archange (Senior Environmental Specialist with the Fulbright Program), Gene George (Haiti Coordinator with the U.S. Peace Corps), Daniel Petz (Senior Research Assistant with the Brookings Institution) and Leon Waskin (Haiti Task Team Coordinator with the U.S. Agency for International Development). The event was attended by over 80 participants, and represents an important milestone in our efforts to support and cultivate SPEA alumni groups around the country.
SPEA’s Big Number
This week’s big number for SPEA Bloomington is the total number of full-time faculty: 75 (compared to 53 in academic year 2005-06).
Shout-Out to SPEA Bloomington
Please join me in congratulating everyone in SPEA Bloomington on winning first place in the latest round of the IUB Energy Challenge. http://energychallenge.indiana.edu/academicstandings.html
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Inside SPEA
This Week’s Big Issue
There is much confusion outside of SPEA about our internal faculty organization. While many academic organizations have departments, SPEA is organized around faculty groups. I am frequently asked to explain the difference between faculty groups and departments and find that faculty, students and staff sometimes have a difficult time understanding the faculty group concept.
Since its founding, SPEA has sought to break-down traditional disciplinary boundaries by creating an environment where investigators from many applied fields working on pressing issues of the day can be encouraged and supported. Traditional disciplinary boundaries and the departmental organization found in many academic units can sometimes create boundaries that place limits on the type of research that is rewarded. Given the breadth and depth of issues covered at SPEA, departments were seen as cutting against the need for flexibility and agility.
In SPEA Bloomington, faculty groups are directed by a faculty chair. Faculty chairs have many of the same responsibilities as department chairs. Faculty chairs are responsible for leading the scholarly mission of the School by working on faculty recruitment and development, and connecting faculty members with others in their field through research seminars. The primary differences are that they are not responsible for running educational programs, dealing with student or faculty complaints, or managing departmental support staff, as is typically the case for department chairs. Since many of SPEA’s academic programs cut across our faculty groups, our educational programs are run by directors who report to the Dean’s Office. More information on our faculty groups can be found at: http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/faculty/faculty_groups/index.shtml
I suspect there are many different views on the strengths and weaknesses of the faculty group structure. Some are likely to argue it has served the School well since its founding in the early 1970s, whereas others are likely to express their disappointment that the level of cross-faculty group collaboration has been underwhelming and individual faculty members have not taken advantage of the flexibility offered by faculty groups.
Putting aside the virtues of the faculty group concept, SPEA’s growth will present challenges for how best to organize itself. Faculty groups centralize much of the decision making in the Dean’s Office. This is manageable in a smaller organization, but will present real issues as the School continues to grow on the Bloomington campus.
While Deans play a role in answering these questions, the faculty controls the decision of how best to organize our scholarly activity.
What’s Happening in SPEA Bloomington?
It was wonderful to see so many students, faculty and staff at the Indiana 9th Congressional District Debate hosted by SPEA Bloomington. We had a strong turnout (the place was packed with over 500 guests) and everyone got a chance to participate in a meaningful exchange of ideas. Brian DeLong, IU’s debate coach and new SPEA faculty member, did a great job under very difficult circumstances. He was able to minimize the cheers and jeers that go along with a passion filled political debate. Fortunately, we did not have to expel members of the audience for unruly behavior. The debate will be broadcast on CSPAN. When I have the air time, I will pass along the details. If you missed the debate, you can view it on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6N25iWiR5k
SPEA’s Big Number
This week’s big (or low) number for SPEA Bloomington is the total amount of indirect cost on grants/contracts by SPEA faculty in FY2009-10: $658,622. This is a the lowest since FY1995-96.
Shout-Out to SPEA Bloomington
Please join me in congratulating SPEA (students, faculty and staff) on the recent National Research Council rankings of 5,000 university doctoral programs in 59 fields of study. Data for these rankings capture program activity between 2002 and 2006. These rankings are based on measures of doctoral program quality in a particular field, not just perceived rankings based on prestige. While the ranking methodology makes it difficult to establish a fixed order, it is fair to say that we are outranked by Princeton (between #1 and #2) and are neck-and-neck with Carnegie Mellon (between #2 and #5) and Syracuse (#4 according to both methodologies). We outrank a number of excellent schools. There are only two other doctoral programs on the Bloomington campus (Musicology in the Jacob School of Music and Folklore/Ethnomusicology in COAS) with rankings equal to or better than the rankings of SPEA’s public affairs and public policy doctoral programs. I encourage you to explore the data and see how we compare to other doctoral programs around the country. The data can be found at: http://www.nap.edu/rdp
There is much confusion outside of SPEA about our internal faculty organization. While many academic organizations have departments, SPEA is organized around faculty groups. I am frequently asked to explain the difference between faculty groups and departments and find that faculty, students and staff sometimes have a difficult time understanding the faculty group concept.
Since its founding, SPEA has sought to break-down traditional disciplinary boundaries by creating an environment where investigators from many applied fields working on pressing issues of the day can be encouraged and supported. Traditional disciplinary boundaries and the departmental organization found in many academic units can sometimes create boundaries that place limits on the type of research that is rewarded. Given the breadth and depth of issues covered at SPEA, departments were seen as cutting against the need for flexibility and agility.
In SPEA Bloomington, faculty groups are directed by a faculty chair. Faculty chairs have many of the same responsibilities as department chairs. Faculty chairs are responsible for leading the scholarly mission of the School by working on faculty recruitment and development, and connecting faculty members with others in their field through research seminars. The primary differences are that they are not responsible for running educational programs, dealing with student or faculty complaints, or managing departmental support staff, as is typically the case for department chairs. Since many of SPEA’s academic programs cut across our faculty groups, our educational programs are run by directors who report to the Dean’s Office. More information on our faculty groups can be found at: http://www.indiana.edu/~spea/faculty/faculty_groups/index.shtml
I suspect there are many different views on the strengths and weaknesses of the faculty group structure. Some are likely to argue it has served the School well since its founding in the early 1970s, whereas others are likely to express their disappointment that the level of cross-faculty group collaboration has been underwhelming and individual faculty members have not taken advantage of the flexibility offered by faculty groups.
Putting aside the virtues of the faculty group concept, SPEA’s growth will present challenges for how best to organize itself. Faculty groups centralize much of the decision making in the Dean’s Office. This is manageable in a smaller organization, but will present real issues as the School continues to grow on the Bloomington campus.
While Deans play a role in answering these questions, the faculty controls the decision of how best to organize our scholarly activity.
What’s Happening in SPEA Bloomington?
It was wonderful to see so many students, faculty and staff at the Indiana 9th Congressional District Debate hosted by SPEA Bloomington. We had a strong turnout (the place was packed with over 500 guests) and everyone got a chance to participate in a meaningful exchange of ideas. Brian DeLong, IU’s debate coach and new SPEA faculty member, did a great job under very difficult circumstances. He was able to minimize the cheers and jeers that go along with a passion filled political debate. Fortunately, we did not have to expel members of the audience for unruly behavior. The debate will be broadcast on CSPAN. When I have the air time, I will pass along the details. If you missed the debate, you can view it on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6N25iWiR5k
SPEA’s Big Number
This week’s big (or low) number for SPEA Bloomington is the total amount of indirect cost on grants/contracts by SPEA faculty in FY2009-10: $658,622. This is a the lowest since FY1995-96.
Shout-Out to SPEA Bloomington
Please join me in congratulating SPEA (students, faculty and staff) on the recent National Research Council rankings of 5,000 university doctoral programs in 59 fields of study. Data for these rankings capture program activity between 2002 and 2006. These rankings are based on measures of doctoral program quality in a particular field, not just perceived rankings based on prestige. While the ranking methodology makes it difficult to establish a fixed order, it is fair to say that we are outranked by Princeton (between #1 and #2) and are neck-and-neck with Carnegie Mellon (between #2 and #5) and Syracuse (#4 according to both methodologies). We outrank a number of excellent schools. There are only two other doctoral programs on the Bloomington campus (Musicology in the Jacob School of Music and Folklore/Ethnomusicology in COAS) with rankings equal to or better than the rankings of SPEA’s public affairs and public policy doctoral programs. I encourage you to explore the data and see how we compare to other doctoral programs around the country. The data can be found at: http://www.nap.edu/rdp
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Welcome to Inside SPEA: A Bloomington Campus Blog!
The purpose of this new blog is to help keep SPEA faculty, staff, students, and alumni up-to-date on school-related developments on the Bloomington campus. In addition, it is my hope that it will provide a forum for us to discuss ongoing issues we face in meeting our mission.
The plan is to provide an update every other week. The format of these updates will include the following elements: 1) My take on a particular big issue facing the school; 2) A highlight from a recent event or a profile of a can’t miss event; 4) A big number that captures a school-wide accomplishment or some aspect of our work that needs our attention; and 5) A shout-out to a member of the SPEA community that deserves special recognition. The format is flexible, so please suggest other aspects of SPEA-BL life that should be a point of focus.
This Week’s Big Issue
I am frequently asked “What is SPEA?” I suspect many of you are also asked the same question. The simple response “The School of Public and Environmental Affairs” almost always results in the following-up question: “What is that?”
In November 1971, a proposal to create SPEA was submitted to the Indiana Commission on Higher Education. It stated that the goal of SPEA was to “establish a central focus for professional training and related research for the public sector of our economy….It will have a problem-solving, public service, and interdisciplinary character.” While this language describes our institutional origins and helps provide some context for the question “What is SPEA?”, it falls short of providing a meaningful description to many students, faculty and staff that are unfamiliar with what we do.
Some people think of SPEA as a school of government or a school of public policy. Clearly, some of the work we do is captured by this description but it fails to recognize the unique aspect of the school’s activities in environmental science, nonprofit management, and arts administration. Moreover, it gives the impression that we only work on matters relating to government, when many of our graduates are cultivating the knowledge and skills to launch careers that span the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.
Some think of SPEA as a school of the environment (or a school of natural resources). Clearly, this covers some of the activity/work that takes place in SPEA, but it falls short since it ignores the reality that most of our students and faculty work on topics that are largely unrelated to the environment.
Clearly, SPEA is an organization with many faces and we should embrace our intellectual and topical diversity. Perhaps there is no one correct response to the question: “What is SPEA?” Instead, I propose that the answer depends on who is asking the question. It would be short-sighted to give the same answer to a prospective student interested in public finance, and to a prospective student interested in environmental science or arts administration. These audiences have different frames of reference and we need to describe the School in terms that have meaning to the audience we are addressing. Moreover, SPEA’s vitality depends on its ability to re-shape itself as the landscape of modern life shifts from one topic or region of the country/globe to another. We do ourselves a disservice to force a single, uniform answer that is time invariant.
What’s Happening in SPEA Bloomington?
We have a number of very exciting guests scheduled to visit this fall and all are worthy of a closer look and your participation. A list of these events can be found at: https://onestart.iu.edu/ccl-prd/GroupCalendar.do?methodToCall=publicCalendar&pubCalId=GRP1558
I am particularly interested in an upcoming visit by Teresa Lubbers, the Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education. She will be visiting SPEA-BL during the afternoon of Friday, October 8th. The principal purpose of her visit is to speak at the first program of a new student group, the Education Policy Student Association (EDPOSA), which consists of graduate and undergraduate students across campus units who are interested in education policy issues.
Commissioner Lubbers will be available to hold an informal meeting for interested faculty on October 8th at 4 p.m. in the Dean’s Conference Room, where she will take questions from faculty and provide her perspective on the most important issues facing higher education at the state and national levels.
Teresa Lubbers became Indiana’s Commissioner for Higher Education in 2009, following a 17 year career in the Indiana State Senate. For more information on her background, here is a link to her professional biography: http://www.lubbersforsenate.com/biography.html
SPEA’s Big Number
This week’s big number for SPEA Bloomington is a record total number of full-time enrolled students in all of our educational programs: 2,030
Shout-Out to SPEA Bloomington
Please join me in congratulating Joseph Slaughterbeck, majoring in health administration at IU Bloomington, as a recipient of the Cox Fellowship Program. For more information about this prestigious award, please visit: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/15755.html
The plan is to provide an update every other week. The format of these updates will include the following elements: 1) My take on a particular big issue facing the school; 2) A highlight from a recent event or a profile of a can’t miss event; 4) A big number that captures a school-wide accomplishment or some aspect of our work that needs our attention; and 5) A shout-out to a member of the SPEA community that deserves special recognition. The format is flexible, so please suggest other aspects of SPEA-BL life that should be a point of focus.
This Week’s Big Issue
I am frequently asked “What is SPEA?” I suspect many of you are also asked the same question. The simple response “The School of Public and Environmental Affairs” almost always results in the following-up question: “What is that?”
In November 1971, a proposal to create SPEA was submitted to the Indiana Commission on Higher Education. It stated that the goal of SPEA was to “establish a central focus for professional training and related research for the public sector of our economy….It will have a problem-solving, public service, and interdisciplinary character.” While this language describes our institutional origins and helps provide some context for the question “What is SPEA?”, it falls short of providing a meaningful description to many students, faculty and staff that are unfamiliar with what we do.
Some people think of SPEA as a school of government or a school of public policy. Clearly, some of the work we do is captured by this description but it fails to recognize the unique aspect of the school’s activities in environmental science, nonprofit management, and arts administration. Moreover, it gives the impression that we only work on matters relating to government, when many of our graduates are cultivating the knowledge and skills to launch careers that span the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.
Some think of SPEA as a school of the environment (or a school of natural resources). Clearly, this covers some of the activity/work that takes place in SPEA, but it falls short since it ignores the reality that most of our students and faculty work on topics that are largely unrelated to the environment.
Clearly, SPEA is an organization with many faces and we should embrace our intellectual and topical diversity. Perhaps there is no one correct response to the question: “What is SPEA?” Instead, I propose that the answer depends on who is asking the question. It would be short-sighted to give the same answer to a prospective student interested in public finance, and to a prospective student interested in environmental science or arts administration. These audiences have different frames of reference and we need to describe the School in terms that have meaning to the audience we are addressing. Moreover, SPEA’s vitality depends on its ability to re-shape itself as the landscape of modern life shifts from one topic or region of the country/globe to another. We do ourselves a disservice to force a single, uniform answer that is time invariant.
What’s Happening in SPEA Bloomington?
We have a number of very exciting guests scheduled to visit this fall and all are worthy of a closer look and your participation. A list of these events can be found at: https://onestart.iu.edu/ccl-prd/GroupCalendar.do?methodToCall=publicCalendar&pubCalId=GRP1558
I am particularly interested in an upcoming visit by Teresa Lubbers, the Indiana Commissioner for Higher Education. She will be visiting SPEA-BL during the afternoon of Friday, October 8th. The principal purpose of her visit is to speak at the first program of a new student group, the Education Policy Student Association (EDPOSA), which consists of graduate and undergraduate students across campus units who are interested in education policy issues.
Commissioner Lubbers will be available to hold an informal meeting for interested faculty on October 8th at 4 p.m. in the Dean’s Conference Room, where she will take questions from faculty and provide her perspective on the most important issues facing higher education at the state and national levels.
Teresa Lubbers became Indiana’s Commissioner for Higher Education in 2009, following a 17 year career in the Indiana State Senate. For more information on her background, here is a link to her professional biography: http://www.lubbersforsenate.com/biography.html
SPEA’s Big Number
This week’s big number for SPEA Bloomington is a record total number of full-time enrolled students in all of our educational programs: 2,030
Shout-Out to SPEA Bloomington
Please join me in congratulating Joseph Slaughterbeck, majoring in health administration at IU Bloomington, as a recipient of the Cox Fellowship Program. For more information about this prestigious award, please visit: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/15755.html
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